Summary
As we move into the second act of the story, the Pervin family “conclave” has concluded, and the siblings go their separate ways. Fred Henry and the young Dr. Ferguson take their leave while discussing the possible ways that Mabel could support herself. Lawrence takes this transition as an opportunity to provide some exposition.
We learn that Joseph Pervin, the patriarch of the Pervin family, made his fortune in horse dealing. His success afforded the family many luxuries like a large country home filled with servants. But since his death, the family’s assets have been mismanaged and their fortune quickly dwindled. The servants were dismissed, and all of the domestic duties fell on the shoulders of Mabel.
Lawrence describes Mabel as extremely prideful and self-reliant. She never betrays any feelings of suffering but instead always keeps her head high. The activity in which she takes the most pride and enjoyment is maintaining her mother’s grave site. She often goes to the cemetery, always alone, and meticulously scrubs her mother’s tombstone. In the second act of the story, we watch this ritual play out in the gray, cold afternoon following the Pervin family meeting.
The young Dr. Ferguson lives near the church, and his house overlooks the cemetery. He happens to be nearby when Mabel sets to scrubbing her mother’s tombstone, and the two catch each other’s eye from across the cemetery. In this moment of eye contact, the third-person perspective switches from Mabel to follow Jack Ferguson. He is described as being enchanted by Mabel’s presence. Jack continues on through his work day, performing surgeries on the townspeople. At some point in the day, he finds himself back near Oldmeadow, the Pervin’s house, where he spots Mabel walking towards the pond.
Jack follows Mabel, as if transfixed. He can feel that something strange is about to happen, but he cannot predict what it is. Then, right before his eyes, Mabel wades into the freezing cold pond until she is completely submerged. Jack runs in after her, pulls her out of the water, and carries her, unconscious, into her own living room. Still in doctor-mode, he removes her freezing wet clothing and wraps her in dry blankets. Then, in order to bring her back to consciousness, he pours a small bit of whiskey into her mouth.
Analysis
If the first act of the story proposes a sympathetic feminist thesis about Mabel’s role in the Pervin family, the second act attempts to support Lawrence’s thesis by demonstrating how Mabel is the glue that holds together the dignity of the Pervin family, despite her lazy, philandering brothers. She has worked silently and invisibly to maintain the house for ten years, and only after her father’s death and the depletion of the family fortune did anyone notice the work she had been doing. While Lawrence seems to want to recognize the labor of Mabel in maintaining order for the men in her life, she is also shown to be completely at the mercy of a man’s income.
Once that income disappears, her life becomes “unreal.” When describing the pleasure Mabel takes in maintaining her mother’s grave, Lawrence writes, “the life she followed here in the world was far less real than the world of death she inherited from her mother” (204). Lawrence is interested in exploring this mother-daughter relationship and the love Mabel feels for her mother, which is exceptional love, considering that she doesn’t show affection toward any of her other family members.
Lawrence seems to be commenting on the material wealth afforded to women at the time; all Mabel’s mother could leave to her was a “world of death,” a world of absence and nothingness. And yet, Mabel seems to seek out this nothingness and enjoy its nullifying effects, perhaps because through the “world of death” she can escape the anxieties of her reality.
With the change of perspective to Jack Ferguson, the story turns toward the more romantic, sensual tone to which D.H. Lawrence owes his fame and reputation for controversy. Jack and Mabel locking eyes across the cemetery creates a macabre version of a “love at first sight” type of moment. In this moment, Jack is totally transfixed by Mabel, and from this moment on the reader is clued in to the strong possibility that something romantic will occur between Jack and Mabel. However, unlike most fairytale moments where romance becomes inevitable, Jack and Mabel’s special moment is steeped in death. Lawrence describes the atmosphere: “The afternoon was falling. It was gray, deadened, and wintry, with a slow, moist, heavy coldness sinking in and deadening all the faculties” (205). This description foreshadows Mabel’s sinking into the pond, and the whole scene portends a certain doom.
Jack Ferguson’s role as a doctor becomes important in the way that it gives him license to undress Mabel in the name of her wellbeing and his responsibility to protect her life. Their feelings toward each other combined with the relative conservatism of the time charge the act of his undressing her with consequential emotional weight. This will play an important role in the third act of the story.
